Qajaq

About

In the film, Atanarjuat paddles to shore in this qajaq (one-man canoe), toward his summer camp and his wife Atuat, who is now expecting their son.

The qajaq was re-constructed by John MacDonald of the Igloolik Research Institute based on detailed structural drawings of a qajaq in the Inuit collection at the British Museum. The drawing, by Michael Morgan, was paid for by Morton and Estelle Sosland.

The qajaq in the museum is almost 200 years old and actually comes from the region of Igloolik, taken to England by the Parry Expedition of 1822-23. The original structure consists of a whalebone frame and a skin-covering attached with braided sinew

The sets for Atanarjuat were all authentic Inuit dwellings, made from traditional natural materials such as ice blocks, animal skins, rocks, sod, and snow. Igloos, for instance, were crafted from real snow blocks - not styrofoam as in some Southern productions about life in the Arctic!